In Amelia Earhart's book, "The Fun of It," p. 8-12, she writes: "Unfortunately I lived at a time when girls were still girls. Though reading was considered proper, many of my outdoor exercises were not. I was fond of basketball, bicycling, tennis and I tried any and all strenuous games. With no instruction in any sport, I wasn't good enough in myself to excel later. I wish that the vogue of teaching youngsters to learn correct form in athletics had been as univeral then (early 1900s) as it is now (1930s). With the intense pleasure exercise gave me, I might have attained more skill and more grace than I did. As it was, I just played exultingly, and built up all kinds of wrong habits.

..."Like many middle western families, we trundled off to a lake (and ours happened to be in (Worthington)Minnesota ) for the summer." There Amelia learned to ride a pony on her own. She went on to become an accomplished rider.

Amelia continues, "There has been much more attention paid to boys' athletics than to girls'. So much, in fact, that many boys have easy access to coaching in various games as well as track subjects, and most girls do not. Consequently, often little incentive is provided for girls to try to develp athletically and, also, little opportunity, when they do wish to. Usually it is not until girls reach college that any comparative attention is paid to them.

"Of course there is more than the mere lack of facilities and teaching to consider. Feminine clothing consisting of skirts, and high heels (after one begins to grow up) certainly make more difficult natural freedom of movement. Then, dresses are much more fragile than masculine garments, so the wearers are usually hampered by being on guard against tearing them.

"Tradition hampers just as much as clothing. From the period when girls were not supposed to be able to do anything comes a natural doubt whenever they attempt new or different activities. Whether or not they are fitted to do what men do physically remains to be seen. Tennis, riding, golf and other sports seem not to be harming individuals who are fit, despite dire predictions to the contrary.

"I know that I worried my grandmother considerably by running home from school and jumping over the fence which surrounded her house.

"'You don't realize,' she said to me one day, 'that when I was a small girl I did nothing more strenuous then roll my hoop in the public square.'

"I felt extremely unladylike, and went around by the gate for several days in succession. Probably if I'd been a boy, such a short cut would have been entirely natural. I am not suggesting that girls jump out of their cribs and begin training, but only that the pleasure from exercise might be enhanced if they knew how to do correctly all the things they can now do without injuring themselves or giving a shock to their elders.

"Of course, I admit some elders have to be shocked for everybody's good now and then. Doing so, sometimes is a little hard on the shockers, however. I know this for my sister and I had the first gymnasiium suits in town. We wore them Saturdays to play in, and though we felt terribly 'free and athletic,' we also felt somewhat as outcasts among the little girls who fluttered about us in their skirts. No one who wasn't style conscious twenty-five years ago can realize how doubtfully daring we were.

"Along with bloomers, coasting while lying flat on the sled was considered rough for girls. Such absurdities, when I looked back on them, make me seem incredibly old. However, that condemned tomboy method of sledding once saved my life.

"I was zipping down one of the really steep hills in town when a junk man's cart, pulled by a horse with enormous blinders, came out from a side road. The hill was so icy that I couldn't turn and the junk man didn't hear the squeals of warning. In a second my sled had slipped between the front and back legs of the horse and got clear, before either he or I knew what had happened. Had I been sitting up, either my head or the horse's ribs would have suffered contact - probably the horse's ribs.

"A Christmas letter to my father about this time began somewhat as follows: 'Dear Dad, Muriel and I would like footballs this year, please. We need them specially, as we have plenty of baseballs, bats, etc.' Christmas came and so did the footballs."

Editor's Note: Our thanks to the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, for granting permission to post the following photos: olvwork20003723, olvwork20003726 and olvwork20003728.